For many students today, artificial intelligence has become an integral part of doing schoolwork. The question is no longer whether students will use it. They are, and they will continue doing so. The question is whether they are being taught how to use it properly.
A recent KPMG Canada survey found that 75 per cent of students use generative AI for schoolwork and nearly 70 per cent of students said they use it at least a few times a week. But only 53 per cent said they have received formal instruction on how to use AI responsibly.
That difference is a problem.
Firstly, students need to understand what AI can and cannot do. They need to know how to check whether an answer is correct, how to spot made-up or misleading information and, lastly and most importantly, when using AI can become an academic integrity issue.
And there are obviously times when students should not use it. For instance, if an assignment is meant to test a student’s own writing or research skills, handing the work over to an AI tool defeats the whole purpose.
There is also a strong argument for limiting AI in college, as educators worry that students could become too dependent on it and stop developing their own skills. KPMG found that 72 per cent of educators consider using generative AI for schoolwork to be cheating, compared with 50 per cent of students. Those concerns are understandable and should not be ignored.
But why not ban it then? One of the reasons is that when these students graduate, many of them will enter workplaces where AI tools are becoming part of everyday work. They will need to know how to use these tools to succeed.
Durham College’s own guidelines state that AI can be used as a learning tool when it is used with proper instruction. The college also says faculty are responsible for clearly communicating when AI is allowed or prohibited in a course or assessment. They need to set rules.
However, students also need to understand why those rules exist and what the thought process is behind each rule.
Take two scenarios: one student uses AI to help come up with ideas for an assignment or maybe the title, while another student might use it to rewrite an entire paper. Both might say they used AI, but there is a big difference between the two. And this is the difference students need to be educated about. Using AI to generate a few ideas can still leave the student responsible for the work, while having AI rewrite an entire paper can take away the writing and thinking the assignment is meant to assess.
And there is another issue that needs attention: not every student has the same access to AI tools.
The same KPMG survey found that almost one-quarter of students pay for AI tools, while 84 per cent of educators are concerned that unequal access to AI tools and training could create educational inequalities.
This should matter to colleges too because students should not feel that they must pay for an expensive AI subscription simply to compete with their classmates. Colleges could consider providing access to approved AI tools through their existing student services or making sure students are taught with tools that are freely available.
KPMG also found that 51 per cent of students said their critical thinking skills had deteriorated since they started using AI. That is exactly why students need better instruction. AI can help support a student’s learning, but the student should still be doing the thinking, making the decisions and taking responsibility for the final work.
While it is not possible for colleges to control all the tools students use outside the classroom, what they can do instead is teach students how to use those tools without letting them do the thinking for them.
AI is becoming part of education whether colleges are ready for it or not. The goal should not be to pretend it isn’t there. It should be to make sure students know when to use it, when not to use it and, most importantly, when to put it aside and rely on their own minds.